Hey there everyone, im converting my closet into a bit of an office to use for magic, like practicing studying rehearsing and inventing etc. anyways, i was wondering if anyone had some good ideas on things to put in the room. thanks!

Well. a chair and a table is always a good place to start.

A mirror and possibly a video camera.

My advice is just to make it as much like a real-life situation as you can. If you do close-up, set it up how you would if you were to perform your close-up magic. The same with parlor or stage. You want your rehearsal to resemble your real-life performances as closely as possible.

Drew

One word. IKEA. If you have an ikea store close you must go there. They have very large, I mean, HUGE wall mirrors at great prices. They are great for practicing. Go ahead and make a wall a bookcase wall as well. Thats what I did!

Last May, in my segment on Jeff McBride's Mystery School Monday, I included a view of my "Magic Room" while on the subject of inspiration.

http://youtu.be/4-TlXl8vRMs

This is where I study, practice & rehearse Magic. Hopfully it will give you some ideas.



“Ars Celare Verum”
Georges-Robert
Magician - Illusionist - Mentalist
http://www.mysteryandillusion.com
http://www.facebook.com/MysteryandIllusion

Way back when I was a musician, we used to say "make the rehearsal like the gig - so the gig is like rehearsal."

Would add a 3 way mirror. You can make one for about ten bucks with three mirror tiles and some duct tape.

I'd suggest using a video camera over a mirror. You don't want to instill the habit of looking down into a mirror when you do a sleight. You tend to carry it into your performances.

For your room, I'd put in anything that you get alot of inspiration from besides the obvious tools of the trade.

Thank you DerZauberer for that share.

-ArchAngel_G

Table or counter at whatever height you are interested in performing at.
Place a stack of books or make a clothespin stand to simulate a spectator holding cards or other props.

In my "magician's batcave", I have a great deal of items that don't even relate to magic. I watched a documentary on a design firm and they surrounded themselves with creative and innovative toys and items solely to inspire creativity. This is kind of what I have going on to try and inspire not only creating, but also just making a practicing environment a little more fun. A few things I have:

-Some of my favorite artworks.
-Books on creativity and inspiration.
-A few of my favorite CDs.

In terms of magic stuff, I have a ton of different kinds of tape, scizzorz, knives, cards, coins, shells, and of course a jumbo mirror. I don't bother with an actual video camera (too much time to see the performance, then by the time you're back to fix the mistake, the cameras in a different position) so I have two separate webcams so I can see two angles of myself as I perform.

This is a fantastic idea for a thread, by the way.

How big is your closet?

Popchris, I think that your idea about the webcams is actually a very very very very very good one! i wish i had the equipment to do that! And sadly my closet is not very big, but i do have a table and mirror set up in my room, and sometimes ill position my phone's camera on a shelf so i can tape myself. I also appreciate the ideas about the creative toys and other things to inspire inspiration thanks for the advice everyone, its much appreciated. and im tempted to check out that video of the magic room, but im blowing off english homework as it is, so ill see about that another day

An idea for using a mirror so that you aren't looking down at your hands is to mount/place the mirror at eye level and tilt it forward so that you can see your performance area. The long not-so-wide behind the door mirrors placed horizontally work great for this. Hooks or a length of 1/2"-1" wide piece of wood will support well across the bottom. Hold the top away from the wall at the desired angle with picture frame wire and hooks. I've seen those Hercules Hooks at Target and the Dollar store.

If anyone needs anything more from the forum, I've posted a lot of what i think is good stuff in another forum about the same topic. Here is the link:
http://www.penguinmagic.com/discuss/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=161316